Introduction
Hopeful signs are emerging in popular opposition to the toxic smog of Trumpism.
One of the signature (and hopeful) political trends of 2025 has been the rise of democratic socialists to elected municipal office. This is most prominent with the election of Zohran Mamdani to become the next mayor of New York City. It is also reflected in the victory of democratic socialist candidates across the US. [1]
Yet this seems to have gone almost without discussion within the Green Party US.
In this essay, I suggest a framework for orienting the Green Party political response to municipal socialist campaigns. Specifically, I advocate critical support for candidates who satisfy some elementary criteria.
The Green Party and the Mamdani campaign
I have been unable to find any public reaction by the New York Green Party to the Mamdani campaign, neither before nor after the general election. Nor am I aware of any public response by the Green Party US either before or after the election. This apparent lack of response is most likely understood as reflecting a political and an organizational weakness on the part of the Greens. It is an example of why several of us founded New Green Horizons about a year ago as a public platform for discussion among US Greens.
Unlike the US Greens, their European counterparts have responded online to the Mamdani campaign. Consider the reaction of Zach Polanski, the recently elected leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. It appears that Polanski and Mamdani share a mutual admiration for one another. [2] The Green Party of England and Wales sent “huge congratulations” to Mamdani on the official GPEW Facebook page. [3]
To cite one more example, Ciarán Cuffe, Co-Chair of the European Green Party wrote that “[t]he New Yorkers gave Zohran Mamdani a clear mandate for affordable housing, sensible transport choices, and climate policy for everyone. Mamdani’s victory is a beacon of hope for democracy that will be felt far beyond the United States.” [4]
A proposed Green framework to respond to the rise of municipal socialism
The Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) success in winning municipal elected office represents a significant development in US domestic politics that Greens may ignore at our peril. We should seek to be part of this development.
Consider some criteria for evaluating municipal socialist candidates.
First, are they running on a platform which, if implemented to a significant extent, would benefit the lives of ordinary working people and their families? For Mamdani, this means advancing issues like free public bus transit, free childcare, rent control, and taxing the rich.
Second, although they may be running as a Democrat, do they have a significant allegiance to an independent, Green or socialist organization (like DSA for example)?.
Third, are they running a people-powered, grassroots electoral campaign? In Mamdani’s case, this meant tens of thousands of active supporters, knocking on doors and talking with voters. The volunteers were largely drawn from the ranks of the New York DSA as well as.from local tenants’ unions.
Fourth, is there a meaningful alternative candidate with a supportable program whose campaign is organized independently of the Democratic or Republican parties?
On critical support
Many on the left, including Greens, are faced with a contradiction when viewing the Mamdani campaign and similar recent campaigns elsewhere.
On one hand, Greens may be in broad agreement with the campaign’s stated goals and objectives, such as rent control and free childcare. On the other hand, they will be troubled by the reliance on a Democratic Party ballot line. The first leads to support for the campaigns, while the second leads in the opposite direction towards opposition or abstention.
There is a possible resolution to this contradiction. Among the most extraordinary phenomena in the Mamdani campaign has been the popular active support and campaign volunteering among tens of thousands of New Yorkers.
The combination of a democratic socialist reform program and a strong volunteer base may counteract problems associated with the use of the Democratic Party ballot line, at least in part, and at least for now.
This combination may justify critical support of candidates who satisfy the conditions of program and mass volunteer base. It also points to the need to be critical of the use of the Democratic Party ballot line.
Critical support is a step short of full endorsement. We may support people-centered politics while also pointing to the problems of working within the Democratic Party.
Conclusion
The need for activism does not end with an election. To succeed in realizing our political program, we need to continue to organize within our communities, schools, and workplaces. The Mamdani campaign provides a real-life example through the continuity of the “Our Time” organization [5], which, at least for now, has continued its canvassing work beyond the election.
While this is a hopeful sign, we should not have unrealistic expectations. The intrinsic conflict between the Democratic Party establishment and the popular resistance embodied in the Mamdani campaign remains unresolved. One potentially promising step in its resolution may come through the advocacy of popular assemblies, as Jacobin has recently suggested. [6]
References
- https://jacobin.com/2025/12/democratic-socialism-municipal-state-strategy
- https://www.instagram.com/p/DLAWFgrti1u/
- https://www.facebook.com/thegreenparty/posts/huge-congratulations-to-zohran-mamdani-on-his-election-as-mayor-of-new-york-city/1388648335950377/]
- https://europeangreens.eu/news/from-new-york-to-budapest-and-belgrade-solidarity-beats-authoritarianism/
- https://ourtime.nyc/
- https://jacobin.com/2025/12/mamdani-popular-assemblies-democratic-socialism
